Kim Jong-Un turns North Korea's clocks back by 30 minutes in new time zone switch

The secretive country has announced its clocks will go back by 30 minutes from next Saturday

Bizarre: North Korea will move to a new time zone from next week (Photo: Getty)

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North Korea is to switch to a new time zone by putting its clocks back by half an hour.

The secretive country will put its clocks back by 30 minutes from next Saturday.

Its state news agency KCNA said Korea's standard time had been changed during occupation by "wicked Japanese imperialists".

North Korea is currently nine hours ahead of GMT and in the same time zone as neighbouring South Korea and Japan.

The move has led to concerns that efforts to reduce tensions between North and South Korea could be hampered.

It could affect work at North Korea's Kaesong industrial plant which is run by both countries.

As reported by the BBC, Unification Ministry official Jeong Joon-Hee said: "And in the longer term, there may be some fallout for efforts to unify standards and reduce differences between the two sides."

There is no international body that approves a country’s change of time zone, as countries decide for themselves.

In 2011, Samoa changed its time zone to the other side of the international dateline, losing one day, so as to make communication easier with neighbours Australia and New Zealand.

And North Korea is not the only country that has created its own unique time zone.

In 2007, Venezuela decided to turn its clocks back by half an hour as President Hugo Chavez wanted to have a “more fair distribution of the sunrise” to residents.

Last week North Korea's leader Kim Jong-Un used the anniversary of the Korean War to issue a chilling threat to kill all Americans.

The anniversary is traditionally hailed by the country as a victory over the US and South Korea.

Kim has recently posed for photographs which show him apparently testing new weapons, chatting to fighter pilots or directing strategy.

He said: “Gone forever is the era when the United States blackmailed us with nukes; now the United States is no longer a source of threat and fear for us and we are the very source of fear for it.”

General Pak Yong-sik of the Korean People's Army added: “The past Korean War brought about the beginning of the downhill turn for the US, but the second Korean war will bring the final ruin to US imperialism.”

The secretive leader has reportedly had more than 70 officials killed since he came to power.

His victims are said to include powerful figures he claims showed disrespect, family members he suspected of treachery and experts whose work he was unhappy with.